Countywide : Protesters Fear Dial-a-Ride Loss

Saying it would be akin to imprisoning them in their homes, a group of disabled and elderly people Monday protested a proposal before the Orange County Transit District Board to discontinue door-to-door dial-a-ride service on Saturdays.

Although the board put off a decision until its June 18 meeting, several members said they want to keep the Saturday service and possibly even alter the program so more vans are available to the elderly and disabled.

County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, a transit board member, said he has no intention of eliminating the Saturday service for the elderly or disabled “under any scenario.”

“Many of these people have only Saturday to shop, much like the able-bodied of the community,” Stanton said.

The transit district staff had recommended dropping Saturday service and adding an hour to the weeknight operation as one option to make the dial-a-ride system, which is heavily subsidized with tax dollars, more cost effective. About 18% of the system’s operating costs are derived from the fare box.

Transit officials say the Saturday operation has been the least efficient, with fewer riders than on any other day of the week. About 1,000 people use the Saturday service. Of those riders, about 54% use it for shopping and 15% ride it to work, according to a district survey. Of the total Saturday ridership, about 41% are physically disabled, the survey said.

More than a dozen blind or wheelchair-bound supporters of the dial-a-ride service turned out Monday during a two-hour hearing on the proposal.

Mike Suppe, a member of the transit district’s handicapped advisory committee, told the board that dropping Saturday service would be like “literally placing people in prison in their homes. . . . I’d like dial-a-ride to stay as it is.”

The board seemed sympathetic to such arguments. But several members voiced concerns that the dial-a-ride service is being abused by able-bodied youths going to video and music stores. Such allegations were first raised by Stanton and Supervisor Don R. Roth, another transit board member, in 1987 and have continued to hound the system.

Transit district officials, however, contend that such practices represent only a small percentage of the daily ridership. About 4% of the riders on the curb-to-curb system are under age 16, according to a district survey. Moreover, the system under current rules does not exclude the able-bodied from receiving rides.

Dial-a-ride vans serve about 1.4 million people a year in Orange County, which represents about 3% of the district’s 46 million annual bus passengers. Anyone can ride, by appointment, but trip distances are limited within the boundaries of small zones, each covering a few square miles. Fares range from 80 cents for the elderly and disabled to $1.70 for others.